A Danny Grainger free-kick rewarded Hearts fans for backing the club through their ongoing financial crisis and gave the Edinburgh side a much needed 1-0 victory over St Mirren in the Scottish Premier League.

The full-back scored the only goal of the game when he sent a lovely swerving effort past the grasp of Craig Samson and into the top corner after 63 minutes in front of a near-capacity crowd of 16,443 at Tynecastle, in what was the first home fixture since the full extent of the club's problems were revealed. St Mirren have now lost six SPL games in a row and sit a single point above the bottom side, Dundee.

A Liam Craig own goal handed Ross County a 1-1 draw at St Johnstone. The Saints captain, Dave Mackay, put the hosts in front with a composed finish five minutes after the restart at McDiarmid Park, but Craig deflected Iain Vigurs's shot into his own net 20 minutes from full-time.

Kyle Benedictus set Dundee on their way to a fine 3-1 home win over Hibernian whose spell at the top of the SPL was brought to an abrupt end. The victory gave Barry Smith's side their third game without defeat and continued their improvement in form.

Benedictus scored 21 minutes into the first half with a fine shot from 20 yards and that was followed by second-half goals from Steven Milne and Kevin McBride, which meant the former Dundee striker Leigh Griffiths's injury-time strike was nothing more than a consolation for the Hibees. However, the scoreline could have been 4-1 as Dundee were denied a first half penalty after Milne was upended by Tom Taiwo.

In the Third Division, Rangers beat East Stirling 6-2 at Ochilview with two penalties from their captain, Lee McCulloch, and goals from Andrew Little, Lee Wallace, Kai Naismith and Kevin Kyle. Kevin Turner and a Paul Quinn penalty gave the home side their goals but they faced an uphill task after Philip Zufle was sent off in the first half, with Rangers leading only 1-0.

Barrie McKay was particularly impressive as Ally McCoist's side went on to win at a canter.